Night in Another World

Feng Ye quickly goes down to the lakeside. He kneels down and cups his hands to taste the lake water.

It has an incredibly pure taste, unlike the chlorinated water he was used to drinking back in his old world. He splashes some on his face and notices that his reflection looks slightly different. His eyes are a brighter shade of brown, and his skin has a healthy glow. His appearance is 95% similar to his previous appearance. He seems to have gotten an inch taller though with a much better complexion. The acne that he had previously is nowhere to be found. His clothes seem to be much different though. Before he was wearing a black hoodie and sweatpants. Looking down, he notices that he is wearing different clothes - a simple linen tunic and pants. He has never seen anything like them before, but they are comfortable enough. He also was wearing a pair of cloth shoes.

"I guess this is one of the measures the system took during my entry here. " Looking at the lake water again Feng Ye sighs. "At least the lake is not salt water so I can temporarily stay here."

By the lakeside, Feng Ye checks his inventory again. He has 10 loaves of bread and a water skin that was full probably containing around 2L of water. In terms of food and water, he should be okay for now. However, he is weaponless and has no source of protein. His so-called "shelter" is a broken bamboo thatched cottage.

The night will approach soon so Feng Ye realized that he needed to spend the night here.

"I have to explore and change my mindset as soon as possible." Feng Ye was self-aware that as an individual from a modern society, he had to adapt or become eliminated. It is incredibly hard for modern individual to switch their mindset to one of survival. However, in his case, if he failed -- he would get to taste forced execution. He has to adapt fast.

Feng Ye treks back up to the broken thatched cottage and explore his surroundings. The bamboo forest stretches out as far as the eye can see, and he can hear the sounds of chirping birds and rustling leaves. The air smells fresh and clean, unlike the smoggy streets he's used to. As he walks, Feng Ye notices that he has a heightened sense of awareness. He can hear the slightest rustle in the underbrush, and his reflexes are sharper than before. It's as if his body has been upgraded somehow.

He also noticed his vision is must sharper. Feng Ye spends the next few moments exploring the forest and testing his new abilities. He can jump higher, run faster, and lift heavier objects than before. He can even sense the presence of other living beings, even when they are out of sight.

Feng Ye mindlessly gathered some bamboo as firewood as he explored the area. He was surrounded by bamboo and it was a plentiful resource. With his strength, he is able to break bamboo pieces more easily and with less exhaustion. While he continued to gather bamboo, he became lost in thought. He reincarnated after being hit by the truck in legend? In this case, it would be a Lambo. What is the World Administrator and why was he chosen? He only had questions. Only the knowledge he was given is clear. He needed to survive and complete the objectives if he were to have any hope to see his sister again.

"Feng Yue, I'll be back." Feng Ye muttered to himself. He thought about his younger sister back at home. Hopefully, she can support herself. "Good thing I left a will."

He shook his head and focused on the task at hand. As he gathered more and more bamboo, he began to feel a sense of accomplishment. At least he had some survival knowledge. He'll stay tonight in the thatched cottage and make some weapons with the bamboo he collected. The bamboo is an excellent base for staffs and clubs as it has nice durability and strength.

The night quickly came as the sun finally set. A moon slowly can be seen sneaking across the horizon in the opposite direction.

Feng Ye returned to the thatched cottage. Placing the newly acquired bamboo down on the wooden floor, Feng Ye looks around the cottage in more detail. He is trying to scavenge any useful resources from any of the broken furniture. In one of the corners, there seems to be a dusty wooden chest hidden underneath a collapsed drawer.

"Was this place really looted?" Feng Ye thought to himself. He went towards to collapsed drawer and cleared it. With the dusty chest in front of him, Feng Ye brushed away to cobwebs and tried to open it. Locked.

Feng Ye quickly goes outside and finds a stone and uses it to smash the lock. After the first strike, notable cracks formed already on the lock.

"The increase in strength is pretty significant." He thought. He strikes again two more times and the lock breaks apart.

With hope for plot armor and the luck usually given to protagonists, he opens the wooden chest quickly.

Feng Ye shows a disappointed look. Still no golden finger or overpowered item. Looking at the contents in the chest, Feng Ye signed. "At least it was somewhat useful. Somewhat lucky to find anything at all.."

He finds a variety of items. A rusty dagger, a few children's books, two more linen tunics, another pair of pants, and a very yellowed map. This was a decent harvest. The map might be an incredible find. Feng Ye places all the items in his inventory and continues to explore and move any furniture that might be hiding other resources.

Luck was indeed on Feng Ye's side this evening. After sweeping and breaking furniture that he suspected contained resources, Feng Ye was able to harvest a few more items.

He found a bag of four grey-colored stones which seemed to be crystallized and was cool to the touch. He also found a black wool cloak and a leather belt. He put all the stones in his inventory and wore the cloak.

"This will do for now. The stones are suspicious. Let's see what they are." Feng Ye pulled up his inventory panel. After placing items in his inventory, the inventory is incredibly user-friendly, and labels the items for him.

Inventory contents:

10x loaves of bread

1x water skin

1x rusty dagger (+3 attack)

3x children book

2x linen tunic

1x linen pant

1x map

4x low-ranked monster cores (grey)

1x leather belt

Feng Ye nods. His suspicions were correct. These are the so-called monster cores. Probably the higher the tier, the more energy they contain. The world he has come to is not a peaceful one. He will have to meet with monsters soon.

Feng Ye pulls up the objective list once again.

The text is as follows:

--

Welcome [Candidate 15864457].

Reincarnation and Transmission Success.

Enters World: World 2580233

Difficulty: Lower Order World Level 3.

Main Objective: Trial by Fire Initiation Task.

Survive and become the last otherworlder standing. Eliminate all other otherworlders.

Side Objective: Obtain 20 monster cores. (Current Progress: 4/20)

Side Objective 2: Obtain world fragment. (Current Progress: 0/1)

--

Feng Ye confirms that these monster cores count even though he didn't hunt for them. As long as he acquired them, the side objective would be completed.

He recalls the numerous web novel adventures that he had read. Usually, monster cores would help him in some way, right?

Main protagonists usually would be able to use these cores to level up and upgrade attributes. Feng Ye immediately takes one of the grey monster cores out of his inventory.

"Hm. What would be the approach to deal with this? Would I eat it? Or is it something I'll use as a material to upgrade a weapon through crafting? Is it even edible? Maybe it can be a source of power for magic. Perhaps, it's a currency in this world." Feng Ye comes up with quite a few hypotheses.

He inquires the system. "Can I absorb this at all? Can the system absorb this directly?"

The ice-cold mechanical voice resounds.

"[Jurisdiction insufficient.]"

"[Please make efforts to promote to contractor as soon as possible.]"

"Wow." Feng Ye retorts. "Should I eat it? What if I get food poisoning and just pass away here directly."

"It's better to be safe than sorry at this point in time." Feng Ye places the grey core back into his inventory. Feng Ye takes out the leather belt and rusty dagger. "These will come in handy."

He moves some of the furniture near the entrance to block any sudden wild intruders. At this point, the bamboo forest is incredibly dark with only the dim moonlight shining through the cracks of the broken thatched cottage.

Feng Ye spends some time processing the bamboo to make a sturdy staff. Specifically, he created a bamboo bo staff with a rusty dagger. Feng Ye made a few and stored the remaining bamboo in his inventory space.

Inventory contents:

10x loaves of bread

1x water skin

3x children book

2x linen tunic

1x linen pant

1x map

4x low-ranked monster cores (grey)

4x bamboo staff (+2 attack)

24x bamboo stalks

"It will be a long day tomorrow. I need to get some rest." Feng Ye finds some soft materials from the broken furniture around him to make a makeshift bed. He blocked the cottage's entrance with the remaining furniture.

"Time to hit the hay and recover. Step by step and it should be okay. I'll also need to only sleep lightly in case of intruders." Feng Ye mutters aloud.

Luckily, he didn't start a fire as it most likely would have attracted unwanted visitors. The temperature in the cottage is cool but not cold enough to require a heat source. The cloak was warm enough to get through the night.

Moving his makeshift bed to the corner out of sight of any windows or the entrance, Feng Ye ensures that he can be the first to spot any intruders.

Feng Ye grasps one of the bamboo staffs closely as he slowly dozes off. His rusty dagger by his side in the event of any sudden surprises.